A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and data as described below and in the drawings referred to herein: Copyright 2011, IGT, All Rights Reserved.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of regulated pay computer-controlled games, either games of skill or games of chance.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Information
The majority of computer games of chance such as found in casinos are based on, or directly derived from, reel slot machines or video poker. Many of the new generation of video slot machines have captured the public's imagination and betting dollars by replacing the fruit and poker symbols of the past with colorful, larger-than-life-characters and by adding new and exciting features like multi-line play, secondary game play, wide-area progressive jackpots and rich animation sequences. While generally not as visually appealing as the new slot machines, video poker machines remain popular because they afford the player the ability to use skill and decision-making to affect the game's outcome. Interestingly, despite achieving tremendous popularity in the home video gaming market, puzzle video games like Tetris®, Bejeweled®, or strategy/construction simulation games such as SimCity®, or role simulation games such as the Sims®, which are also based on skill and decision-making, have made no inroads into the casino electronic game arena. These games are far too complex or culturally remote for slot managers or legacy game manufacturers to consider offering them to the current generation of casino players.